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The Journeyman Project:Turbo!
The Journeyman Project is a time travel adventure game developed by Presto Studios. Gameplay The game features a first-person perspective, thus, the player sees what the protagonist is seeing. The screen displays a rectangle shaped visor (acting as a monocle for Agent 5). This user interface helped to reduce the movie size and maintain relatively high framerates on the slow hardware of the time. Movement controls are possible with four interface buttons located below the screen, but they can also be commanded with the arrow keys in the keyboard. The movements are forward, backward, turn right and turn left. The gameplay is that of an adventure game, in which the player is presented with several clues and puzzles that must be solved in order to move on or finish the level. Much of what happens in the game results of the player's intuition and deductions, and if the assumptions turn out to be wrong, the path of the player will probably prove fatal. Different items are found throughout the game, and can prove to be vital or, at least, helpful in the player's attempts to solve the problems and situations given. The most important of these items are the biochips. There are a total of 7 Bio-Chips: For speed purposes, a Bio-Chip panel is found below the screen, in which all collected Bio-Chips are stored. This avoids the player having to look for such chips in the inventory list, which takes longer. Story The game takes place in the distant future. Three temporal disturbances, referred to in-game as anachronisms, are detected by the Temporal Protectorate, an agency tasked with preventing the alteration of history. An officer, known only as Agent 5, is sent to investigate and correct the anachronisms. He discovers that the anachronisms are all related to an event that occurred ten years prior to the beginning of the game. An alien race had come to Earth and offered to induct Earth into a federation of planets called the Symbiotry of Peaceful Beings. The aliens promised to return in ten years for Earth's answer. The anachronisms would prevent Earth from joining the Symbiotry, either by preventing the aliens from coming to Earth or by changing Earth's reaction to the aliens. Each anachronism is caused by a robot built by Dr. Sinclair, a scientist from Agent 5's time. He fears that the aliens are a malevolent force rather than a peaceful race, and is doing everything in his power to stop Earth from joining the aliens. After correcting the anachronisms, Agent 5 learns that Dr. Sinclair plans to assassinate the alien delegate coming for Earth's answer to their offer. Agent 5 finds Dr. Sinclair hiding on top of an apartment building and holding a rifle, ready to fire on the delegate as soon as he arrives. After a brief scuffle, Agent 5 arrests Dr. Sinclair, allowing history to take its course. Development The Journeyman Project was released in 1992 after 2 years of development. The game impressed the gaming press with its use of static high quality rendered graphics, stylist artwork and great immersive feeling with the help of digital audio. It suffered from performance problems and slow animations due to its early reliance on Macromedia Director. These problems were mostly overcome with the version 2.0 release that was retitled The Journeyman Project Turbo! and published by Sanctuary Woods in 1994. Reception The game was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #196 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. Releases and bug fixes The game suffered from performance problems and slow animations due to its early reliance on Macromedia Director. These problems were mostly overcome with the version 2.0 release and retitled as The Journeyman Project Turbo! under the publisher Sanctuary Woods in 1994. * The Journeyman Project v1.0 - (1992) original self-published release for Macintosh * The Journeyman Project v1.1 - (1992) bug fixes * The Journeyman Project v1.2 - (1993) performance upgrade, fastest Mac version until TJP Turbo * The Journeyman Project MPC v1.0 - (1993) first release for Windows 3.1 * The Journeyman Project Turbo - (1994) unified release for Mac and PC with major speed improvements * The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime - (1997) a complete remake of the original External links * [http://presto.yoonie.com/presto/journeymanturbo/ Archived homepage for The Journeyman Project Turbo] * Interview with Tommy Yune, Adventure Classic Gaming (2007). * Legacy of The Journeyman Project, Adventure Classic Gaming (1999).